Jesse Lingard scores his first goal for Man Utd in 10 months vs Astana

Jesse Lingard scores his first goal for Man Utd in 10 months vs Astana during their Europa League match at the Astana Arena.

Jesse Lingard has not had the best of times at Manchester United in almost a year. The player who was once seen as a bright prospect when he joined the first team from their academy, has since fallen by the wayside, much to his and the team’s chagrin.

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He started the season playing in his favoured attacking mid role. However, he has since lost his place in the side to Andreas Pereira. Surprisingly though, the 26-year old was given the reigns of the side in their match against Astana in the Europa League.

With Manchester United already qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League, there is not a lot of pressure on the side. In fact, Ole Gunnar Soslkjaer has fielded a very young side with only Lingard and Luke Shaw having regular first team experience.

Jesse Lingard scores his first goal for Man Utd in 10 months vs Astana

The responsibility of leading the side has perhaps bought in a sense of maturity to Lingard as he finally ended his goal scoring drought with a goal in the 10^th minute of the match. This was his first goal for United in 28 matches. The last time he scored was in January 2019 against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

At the time of writing, United have carried their lead into half-time. If the Red Devils manage to keep a clean sheet tonight, they will become the first team in the Europa League to keep 5 clean sheets in as many matches in the Europa League.

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